Absurdist Fiction in the Focus of Philosophy: Máirtín Ó Cadhain and his Novel "The Dirty Dust"

Abstract

The subject of the study is the phenomenon of the absurd in Irish fiction and its relation to philosophical discourse. Absurdist fiction is proposed to be analyzed from the point of view of the philosophical meanings embedded in it. Most often, this is the interpretation of the absurd as a concept meaning a person's discord with the world. The novel by the Irish writer Ó Cadhain is considered as representing the absurdity of the human existence. In the analysis of the novel, the methods of modern cultural knowledge were used: the description of various sociocultural trends and phenomena, their theoretical generalization. The purpose of the work is to clarify the meaning of the absurd for the constitution of human existence.  The article explores the connection of the realities present in the novel with the philosophy of traditionalism. The absurd is investigated as an indicator of the "silencing" of meaning. The factors that bring together the views of modernists who wrote about the absurd and the traditionalist doctrine are: fixation of the destruction of the habitual way of life, self-integrity, perversion or disappearance of the hierarchical social order, substitution of values, a direct indication of the "end of time" (eschatology). Changes in speech almost always act as an indicator of the heroes losing their own identity. With the help of this indicator, as a rule, loss of connection with Another, global alienation and dehumanization of a human being are recorded. Thus, the importance of the category of the absurd for fundamental philosophical ontology is proved.